Tag Archives: Dabob Bay Range Complex

An easement requested by the Navy to prevent industrial
development along the western shoreline of Hood Canal appears to be
the first of its kind in Washington state.

One can envision this easement as a strip of underwater area
from the Hood Canal bridge south to a spot just south of the
Jefferson-Mason County line near Eldon, as I described in a
Kitsap Sun story on May 15.

In most areas, the protected bedlands will be defined by their
depths, from 18 feet below the average low tide to 70 feet down.
More than 4,000 acres of state-owned bedlands would be covered by
the easement.

“The practical effect of the agreement will be to preclude new
near-shore commercial or industrial construction along the areas of
the Hood Canal and neighboring waterways managed by DNR where the
Navy operates,” states a joint press release issued by the
Navy along with the
Washington Department of Natural Resources.

It was quickly recognized that this could mean the end of the
controversial pit-to-pier project for loading gravel onto ships and
barges. If the developer, Thorndyke Resource, is unable to obtain a
state lease for the proposed pier, the project would be dead in the
water. The company, which has been working on the project for
years, does not intend to give up without a fight.

Since the story first came out, the Navy has been preparing to
conduct an appraisal, which will involve hiring an independent
contractor, according to Liane Nakahara, spokeswoman for Navy
Region Northwest. Once the appraisal work begins, it will take at
least a couple months to complete, she said. Then the Navy and DNR
must each approve the appraisal results.

I can’t imagine how difficult it will be to estimate how much
money the state could lose by locking up this strip of underwater
area for decades. If the pit-to-pier project were a certainty, then
it would be easier to figure out how much revenue the state would
lose by blocking that one lease. But what would be the probability
of the pit-to-pier project getting all the required permits if the
easement were not a factor?

What other types of development would be foreclosed by the
Navy’s easement along Hood Canal, and where might these projects be
located? If one could assume that the Jefferson County shoreline of
Hood Canal would never be developed with marinas or piers anyway,
then the loss would be zero and the Navy’s easement would be cheap.
These are the questions that will drive an appraiser crazy.